Mirrors
by RedKetchup
Summary: These mirrors can reflect the similarities but not the bonds. Team Seven fic.


I kinda didn't go over this and it's 2:40 AM, so please point out any errors!

* * *

It's almost like the same thing being repeated, only it's so much worse and eminently better at the same time. Just thinking about it leaves a bittersweet taste in Kakashi's mouth, a type where no matter how much he swallows it just won't disappear.

He sees Sasuke as the most familiar part of this recast play, yet it's so completely different that he is hesitant on his method to help. Kakashi knows that it will either be safe or sorry though, so he goes through with his ideas.

_It's called chidori._

He gives Sasuke Uchiha power, and then he leaves the rest to his other two charges, because they each have their own unique way of keeping Sasuke sane. It's easier that way, because Kakashi has never been the type to have that loving personality. He had always been the distant one.

It's almost like the same thing, except Sasuke isn't Kakashi and Sakura can't be Rin and Naruto will never be Obito.

* * *

Naruto comes knocking on her window one afternoon, and somehow he accidentally managed to drag Sasuke into his shenanigans as well. They're both breathless and even a little dirty around the edges, so she thinks that they were probably fighting and wanted someone to play interference. It's their day off though, hence she can't be sure.

Naruto laughs a little and says, "Sakura-chan, we found a good view."

And she only has to take a few moments to realize what he means. She smiles and she instantly eyes Sasuke as she quickly steps out onto her balcony. She shuts the sliding door and then the three of them are off racing across rooftops, Naruto babbling in her ear about some nonsense and Sasuke gliding through every step with ease.

They stop on top of a small apartment building, and Naruto plops down on the tiled roof and stretches his legs out wide with a grunt. Sasuke sits at the very top, where both sides of the roof meet, and Sakura curls her legs underneath her as she takes a spot close to him.

They watch the sun set over Konoha, for once silent and content.

* * *

Naruto doesn't _care_ for his lunch. It's a store bought one, which he usually refused to ever get due to the price never fitting into his planned, monthly expenses and since it wasn't ramen. He would have never gotten it, but Sakura-chan had been telling Sasuke-teme about it during training yesterday and he had hoped...-

Sakura-chan isn't sitting with Sasuke and him today, though. Ino had actually come calling for her, and for some unknown reason Sakura-chan decided to go with her, too.

Thus, leaving Naruto alone with stupid Sasuke and a stupid lunch of tomatoes and rice balls.

Naruto sighs heavily through his nose and squints over to see what Teme is eating. _It's probably something stupid, because he's stupid and I wish Sakura-chan was here and-_

"You have natto?! Where'd you get natto?!" Naruto shrieks, his tirade of thought forgotten.

Sasuke turns to give Naruto a blank look, but since Naruto is nearly fluent in bastard expressions since the start of Team 7 he knows that Sasuke is slightly surprised.

Sasuke looks back to his untouched lunch. "Sakura made it for me."

Naruto feels his heart drop. _Sakura-chan made it for him..._?

"This sucks. I have stupid tomatoes and freaking rice balls. Rice balls! I don't even care for rice all that much!" Naruto snaps at no one in particular, kicking a rock away from him and scuffling some dirt up into the air from his spot on the corner of the training grounds.

Sasuke stills slightly and glances at Naruto's lunch.

"...Would you...want to switch lunches?" Sasuke asks uncomfortably, shifting awkwardly from his spot on a rock.

Naruto blinks and looks over towards Sasuke, who's stubbornly looking away. There's a faint blush decorating his face and Naruto feels that uncertain twinge in his stomach that reminds him of the time Iruka-sensei gave him his forehead protector or when Kaka-sensei drops by to lecture him on the importance of vegetables in an all-ramen diet.

Naruto pauses, but looks away to hide his pleased expression. "I mean...sure, I guess."

Sakura-chan's natto was a much better lunch anyway.

* * *

He thought it would be easy. He swore himself into the life of an avenger afterall. Avengers didn't have time to worry about trivial things such as friends or bonds. Those were concepts that weakened a person. Attachments are distractions, things that could confuse someone from their true capability to becoming stronger.

Sasuke distanced himself for a reason, so it shouldn't be _this_ hard.

He shouldn't care about Kakashi's sympathy and ability to understand or the way Sakura was willing to say she would do anything for him. Their words latched on under his skin, and even as he disregarded Kakashi's warning against revenge and did a quick motion to Sakura's neck to knock her unconscious, he couldn't shake the words off.

He shouldn't even be questioning his choice to abandon them. It should be easy.

Naruto spasms against Sasuke's hold on his neck, yet he's wide open and there's no chance he can escape his fate now.

Naruto trembles again from Sasuke's hold, and Sasuke's other hand is going numb from the chidori. He eyes the spot where Naruto's heart should be.

Sasuke thinks that the Valley of the End is ironic and even a bit mocking.

* * *

It's like a mirror, except everything is wrong and twisted. It should be a reflection being echoed back, but there are too many differences for it to be the same.

Kakashi thinks of a boy, an Uchiha, who chose his team over a mission, and how he was killed over that choice in the end. He thinks of a girl who loved and loved and received nothing but an empty heart in return.

Kakashi thinks of Obito and Rin and of his own foolishness.

He walks through too familiar hospital halls to Naruto's room, and he thinks of the already healed wound he found in the boy's chest at the Valley of the End. The wound was caused by chidori; it's obvious.

It was also meant for the kill, but intercepted at the last minute.

He pictures a blond, wild boy who was a whole other sun on his own. Someone who fought for his team and lost. He adds a girl who affectionately cherished more than she hated, yet wanted to lead the way for once. He thinks of another Uchiha, one completely different from Obito, who was not Kakashi at all and still had his own dose of foolishness.

Kakashi dreads seeing Naruto and Sakura, because he knows this play scene by scene and he thinks that he's had enough of this.

There's the sound of a door opening up ahead, and Kakashi's surprised to see a pink head walking out of a room. Sakura whips her head back and forth, looking for someone, and spots Kakashi.

"Kaka-sensei! Have you seen Tsunade-sama?" she gushes, feet pacing quickly and eyes wild.

She's smiling, he notes.

"...Tsunade?"

Sakura's eyes have a burning look to them. There's excitement and hope, but most importantly determination.

"Hai! I need to ask her something! She's a famous medical nin, right?" Sakura says, already running down the hall and disappearing as fast as she came.

Kakashi watches her go, feeling odd and out of place. He turns towards the room Sakura just exited, which is undoubtedly Naruto's.

He hears the loud calls for ramen echoing from inside the room.

He already figures Naruto is planning three ways to break out of the hospital and only one way to go and get Sasuke back. He suspects Sakura probably has six.

It was about time for the mirror to break anyway**.**


End file.
